Month: April 2008

Researchers in the Department of Ethology at Hungary’s Eotvos Lorand University have found that dogs love to play. A dog’s drive to play and please overrides other instincts. Researchers found that dogs who where socialized didn’t even seem to care with whom they played. All of the dogs in study were pets and were used to being around humans. The dogs in the study couldn’t resist playing their favorite games even with a stranger. The study found that the amount of time the owner spent playing with the dog and the variety of games were important. Dogs are driven by a need to please their humans.

See, I knew that dogs are better than cats. (For more on my view about cats read this.) Dogs understand that as a pet their primary responsibility is to their owner. Dogs want to please owners. Dogs want to make owners happy. However, I find it amusing that a scientific study was needed to prove that dogs love to play. Really all that is needed to figure this out is a dog, a human preferably a kid and a ball or other toy. The study proved that dogs just want to have fun.

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Yes, that is right in Rowlett, Texas a goose helps the human crossing guards. Sam lives in a pond near the school. Every morning he joins the human crossing Joan and Earl as they assist the children crossing the road. Sam honks at cars to stop and seems to like the children. In his early years Sam or Aggie as he was known at the time was cared for by Laurieann Dygowski. He disappeared after a storm many years ago.

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One of the new features WordPress has introduced is Possibly Related articles. At the end of each post WordPress includes a list of other posts that the reader might find interesting. Any related post from the same blog are at the top of the list in bold. Supposedly, this will increase traffic on all blogs. It is possible to disable this feature.

I am going to give it a try and see what I think about it. I have found some blogs through the link that I would prefer not to be linked to my. If I disable the feature my blog will not be in the links. So, I am going to keep it for now. Here is my disclaimer: I do not endorse any of the possibly related articles linked to other blogs.

If you have tried this feature out let me know what you think.

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Read an interesting op-ed piece about the high drop out rate in the United States. According to this piece, the U.S. high school system is out of date and does not prepare students for life. Students graduate without basic skills and even basic knowledge of historical facts. It is one more piece attacking our public education.

As an educator who has taught in both public and private schools, I am well aware that there are many problems with our educational system. However, studies comparing U.S. students to the world often fail to consider that in we educate everyone. For the most part students channeled into college prep and vocational tracts. Part of the “American Dream” is that if a student is willing to work hard enough they can achieve a college education no matter regardless of test results. Instead of college, being for the elite is almost we have a sense of entitlement regarding higher education.

The obsession with test scores in my opinion has greatly harmed our educational system. In an effort to prepare students for the almighty tests elements of the curriculum deemed not essential has been jettisoned. In many cases, education consists of teaching to the test. That does not prepare students for anything beyond a test. In some cases, it is possible to do well on the tests without gaining basic skills. Several years ago the basic skills test in Texas for third graders focused on only on solving word problems in math. Students were to select the operation but not actually solve the problems. In fact in training for teachers we were instructed to discourage students from solving the problems because it slowed them down on the tests.

While No Child Left Behind was intended to help at-risk students and students in low performing schools. In my opinion, it has created an emphasis on teaching only basic skills. Students will meet the standards that are expected of them. It is better to have higher standards and provide remediation or extra assistance when needed.

One last thought, I was shocked several years ago when we moved to a different state and discovered that it is assumed only very few students will be able to enter a 4-year university upon graduation from high school. I had a school administrator inform me that only the elite students would gain direct admission into a university. I was instructed to lower my standards because the students were headed for community college. In many cases, community colleges are taking the place of high schools. They must provide prep courses to bridge between high school and a 4-year university.

Yes, many high school graduates are clueless and ill prepared for life. Yes, our educational system has serious problems. It is time for to get serious about fixing the problem instead of making more laws, regulations or adding more tests. It is time to provide schools with the funding needed. It is time to give educators the respect, support and pay they deserve. Change is not going to happen with more federal intervention but with local grassroots support.What are you doing to support schools, teachers and students in your community?

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Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine is one of three churches in the Cathedral Parish of St. Augustine. The Cathedral Parish is the oldest Catholic Parish in the United States. Which makes a lot of sense because St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. The first Catholic mass was celebrated 8 September 1565 near current location of Mission Nombre de Dios (Name of God). The pictures below are of Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine located in downtown St. Augustine.

Playing with the camera again. Couldn’t resist taking this one at an angle.

Another shot of the steeple.

Front entry of the Cathedral. This was a hard shot to take. The street is very busy so I couldn’t stand in the street. Those tour trolley, horse drawn carriages and cars kept getting in my way.

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5 students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where caught trying to steal a baby alligator from miniature golf course in Daytona Beach Shores. I’ve heard of water hazards but an alligator in the water, that is a rough one. I’m not going to retrieve a ball from that one.

Winner

William Johnson from Brazoria, TX had a very busy weekend. Friday police found Johnson with 4 1/2 foot water moccasin that had bitten him. Saturday, he claims to have found a gator on the road near Angleton and decided to put in the back of his Buick Regal. Next, he broke into a house to steal a big screen TV. He couldn’t load it up himself so he asked a neighbor to help him. The neighbor was willing to help until he saw the gator and decided to call the cops. Gee, what a neighbor. DPS (Department of Public Safety) troopers caught him with the Gator in the back of the car. Guess Johnson thinks he is some sort of not so bright crocodile hunter.